Prices of the electricity we use to charge

Ghost1951

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Jun 2, 2024
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Nobody is pretending there are no e-car disadvantages, least of all me. There are pluses and minuses for each, I just ask everyone to look at the whole picture to comment fairly.

In this respect there is an emergency top up on route for e-cars, both the AA and the RAC carry top up equipment now to get an e-car to the nearest charging point.
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They need that.

As I understand it, not having one, they can't be towed like ICE cars. They have to be uplifted completely if being recovered. This is hearsay - I have no experience of it myself.
 

MikelBikel

Esteemed Pedelecer
Jun 6, 2017
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Ireland
To make sense of the question of whether Irish people are being ripped off or not, you would have to consider exactly how the Irish grid is being supplied. If you have more gas or coal generated power generation than the UK does, consumers would be more exposed to the world market price of those fuels. This could explain why you pay more per unit than UK customers. I note that the UK is not shown on your chart for some reason but the electricity price here is slightly less than what is shown for the EU27 average. I pay 28 Eur cents per kilowatt hour, BUT.... I also pay 70 pence a day standing charge so you would need to take that into account.

Standing charges are a total rip off for the small user and encourage power hogs to use what they like, subsidised by low consumption customers. Standing charge is my biggest cost component. I typically use about 3kwhr of electricity a day and about 35 kilowatt hours of gas.

This might help, but there is plenty online about the sources of energy supply on the Irish grid.

View attachment 61422
I don't call it the "Standing Charge"..
I call it the 'Stand And Deliver Charge'
Coz it reminds me of highway robbery
Sláinte :)
 
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Ghost1951

Esteemed Pedelecer
Jun 2, 2024
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I "export" a lot of wind sometimes..
But I don't get paid for it, worst luck..
.. I don't even get thanked!
Haha :)
That is the wrong sort of wind though.

I remember a programme on TV where a guy in a remote area was recycling his toilet waste into a fermentation vessel and produced usable methane to heat an out door hot tub. Mind you, I think he may have been putting barrow loads of cow slurry into it. I doubt the gas burner would produce much heat on the output of the odd human. The other thing about bio waste gas generators is that they need to be kept warmish, so the bugs can do their work. This makes them a bit 'ify' at the time when you probably mostly need the heat.

Still, mustn't complain. Most things on this planet work rather well for us, which is why we have reproduced to become the massive pest we are on the planet. Old Malthus - who is now laughed at, was right though. In the end, we WILL exterminate ourselves - or pretty much do it. It is impossible for a species to continually reproduce at the level we are doing and not use up all the capacity of the planet to support them. He predicted mass starvation. It WILL happen eventually, probably through global warming messing with our agriculture - eventually.

The green revolution fans will laugh - until they suddenly stop laughing, and realise that Malthus was right.

 
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flecc

Member
Oct 25, 2006
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30,647
They need that.

As I understand it, not having one, they can't be towed like ICE cars. They have to be uplifted completely if being recovered. This is hearsay - I have no experience of it myself.
That is largely correct. Not having a true gearbox, just a single stage reduction, they can only have an electrical "neutral" to allow them to be moved slowly a short distance. For example in a conveyer belt car wash, or winched onto a collection truck inclined platform, or pushed to the side of a road in the event of a breakdown.

However, they often have reserves of current. Mine has two, one of normal driving ten miles, plus one of three miles with reduced power.
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MikelBikel

Esteemed Pedelecer
Jun 6, 2017
1,056
345
Ireland
That is largely correct. Not having a true gearbox, just a single stage reduction, they can only have an electrical "neutral" to allow them to be moved slowly a short distance. For example in a conveyer belt car wash, or winched onto a collection truck inclined platform, or pushed to the side of a road in the event of a breakdown.

However, they often have reserves of current. Mine has two, one of normal driving ten miles, plus one of three miles with reduced power.
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Pity the Contactors are not accessible thru the car floor.. with Suitable Isolation.
(Apparently some batteries dodgy underseat hatches could give unlucky occu-pants, Hot Pants :) )